The electric vehicle is regaining popularity. Because of pollution from the combustion engine, federal and state governments are seeking alternative power systems for the automobile and other vehicles. One of the leading candidates is the battery-powered vehicle, which utilizes electricity stored in batteries.
Although battery-powered vehicles are clean, quiet and efficient, they face a number of obstacles to acceptance. One obstacle is the short time-life of the vehicle's charged batteries. While there have been advances in power storage and charge duration, the time-life cycle of a battery-based vehicle is only about two hours. Therefore, a battery-powered vehicle cannot go for more than two hours without recharging. Another obstacle to acceptance is the inconvenience to the user in having to continually plug into a power source.
Because of the batteries short time-life the driver needs to manually plug and unplug the vehicle every time it is used. If the driver fails to plug in the vehicle, then the driver may find the car insufficiently recharged for the next use. This practical issue of everyday use must be answered, if there is to be any significant widespread use of the electric automobile.